ATC Frenzy

Back to making ATC's to trade on the cruise in October. Before this I had never made an ATC...seen lots of them and just hadn't tried it. I am SO glad this opportunity came along. Just loving making them and playing with all the little odds and ends I've collected over my crafting life. It has been an incredible thing for me and I am going to hate it when I have them all done. Nothing like grabbing some oddball item or special paper or a diecut and seeing what you can do with it. The great thing is that the space is so small (2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches) that it does not take much stuff or much time to put one together. If you're bored...try it. It is also a great way to try new techniques on a small scale and you haven't spent tons of time or wasted lots of material. It is also an excuse to use some of the things you bought five years ago and never even opened the package.

It was a VERY happy birthday!

I want to share my fabulous birthday gifts. I got a lot of Tim Holtz stuff...salvage stickers, dies, tissue tape, film strip ribbon, antique buttons and a great stamp set and some of the new embossing folders. I also got new Cricut mats, some Class A Peels (metallic embellishment stickers), another stamp set, a Cricut cartridge (the new Mini Monsters), a Spellbinders Steel Impressability, a great corner punch and....my absolutely wonderful card class people gave me money to spend on my cruise. I can hardly wait to play with all the new stuff. I am so incredibly lucky to have the best sister in the world, the best of "best friends" and so many other great friends. I even had a special birthday party lunch and several lunch dates. It was almost worth getting this old! Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so very special.

Stickles All In Place

Wanted to share the great Stickles storage thing my husband made for me. It was originally only three steps high but there was a problem with it and it had to be remade. By then I figured out I could put my Perfect Pearls in it too and knew there were new colors of Distress Stickles coming out...so the plan was revised to make it five steps high. Now my Stickles are stored upside-down the way they should be and are not jumbled in a drawer where it was hard to find the color you were looking for. This was made from White Oak wood that Jack got by chopping down the tree, milling with his portable sawmill and then drying the wood, planing it and cutting it up. Once in a while it is very handy to live in the middle of nowhere in the woods.

Speaking of ATC's

Here are a few of the ATC's I made recently for the big swap on the cruise. I am using a lot of Tim Holtz stuff but not all of them have Tim stuff on the cards. I am really enjoying just grabbing a stamp or an embellishment and then making myself design a card around the item. I hear that some people make all their swap cards the same but for me it is an adventure to make them all different.

I am going through Tim Holtz's book "A Compendium of Curiousities" and doing some of the cards in each of the techniques that he shows in the book.

Card Class Stuff

Hi...thought I would share a great card that we did in classes this month. I also have to confess it is not an original idea and was completely CASE'd from the queensscene.blogspot.com. Just thought the design and colors were so great I couldn't resist copying it and sharing it. This is a new Stampin' Up set called Sweet Scoops and the colors are Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and So Saffron. Classes going great this month and I have one more on Monday and then it's back to working on my ATC's for the Tim Holtz cruise that my sister and I are going on in late September. Can't wait.

I'm trying putting a picture on the blog.

This is one of my husband's (Jack) pet birds showing off. We have peacocks and chickens and they are serious pets and we might eat chicken...but never one of our chickens.

Takes a Long Time

You can see I started this blog in December of 2009...then I got sick. Then I decided I didn't want a blog but I wanted a website. I used to make websites but with software from a number of years ago. The new software is overwhelming and I am still "learning it. I saw my friend Emily had a blog and I was thinking I should have stayed with the whole idea. So I am back to doing a blog. Not sure what I'm going to do with it but you can always check and see. I might post again before another six months goes by.